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The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

cnn.com

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Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#71

Post by floatrock »

layer8 wrote: post #56
untrust wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another question: If AI is going to eat up everyone's jobs, how will any business be safe from a new competitor showing up and unseating them off their throne? I don't think that the low level peons would be the only ones at stake as a company could be easily outcompeted as well since AI could conceivably outperform or replace any existing product anyways. I guess funding for processing power and physical machinery t…

Institutional knowledge is key here. Third parties can’t replicate it quickly just by using AI.

Also: network effects, inertia, cornering the market enough to make incumbents uneconomical, regulatory capture...

AI certainly will increase competition in some areas, but there are countless examples where being the best at something doesn't make you the leader.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#73

Post by layer8 »

paulluuk wrote: post #33

Around the time when bitcoin started to get serious public attention, late 2017, I remember feeling super hyped about it and yet everyone told me that money spent on bitcoin was wasted money. I really believed that bitcoin, or at least cryptocurrency as a whole, would fundamentally change how banking and currencies would work. Now, almost 10 years later, I would say that it did not live up to my believe that it would…

> already have a huge impact on tech

As a user, I haven’t seen a huge impact yet on the tech I use. I’m curious what the coming years will bring, though.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#74

Post by spcebar »

Something is nagging me about the AI-human replacement conversation that I would love insight from people who know more about startup money than me. It seems like the AI revolution hit as interest rates went insane, and at the same time the AI that could write code was becoming available, the free VC money dried up, or at least changed. I feel like that's not usually a part of the conversation and I'm wondering if we would be having the same conversation if money for startups was thrown around (and more jobs were being created for SWEs) the way it was when interest rates were zero. I know next to nothing about this and would love to hear informed opinions.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#75

Post by code_for_monkey »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #19
sevensor wrote: post #12

What AI is going to wipe out is white collar jobs where people sleepwalk through the working day and carelessly half ass every task. In 2025, we can get LLMs to do that for us. Unfortunately, the kind of executive who thinks AI is a legitimate replacement for actual work does not recognize the difference. I expect to see the more credulous CEOs dynamiting their companies as a result. Whether the rest of us can surviv…

Consulting companies like the Big 4 where this happens most are bigger/stronger than ever (primarily due to AI related consulting). Try again.

I think this is the kind of logic you wind up with when you start with the assumption that the Big 4 tell the truth about absolutely everything all the time

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#76

Post by airstrike »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #19
sevensor wrote: post #12

What AI is going to wipe out is white collar jobs where people sleepwalk through the working day and carelessly half ass every task. In 2025, we can get LLMs to do that for us. Unfortunately, the kind of executive who thinks AI is a legitimate replacement for actual work does not recognize the difference. I expect to see the more credulous CEOs dynamiting their companies as a result. Whether the rest of us can surviv…

Consulting companies like the Big 4 where this happens most are bigger/stronger than ever (primarily due to AI related consulting). Try again.

Consulting companies don't sell productive advice. They sell management insurance.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#77

Post by code_for_monkey »

sevensor wrote: post #53
Der_Einzige wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consulting companies like the Big 4 where this happens most are bigger/stronger than ever (primarily due to AI related consulting). Try again.

What makes you think productive work is what consulting companies are selling? They're there for laundering accountability. When you bring in consultants to roll out your corporate AI strategy, and it all falls apart in a few years, you can say, "we were following best practices, nobody could have anticipated X," where X is whatever failure mode ultimately tanks the AI strategy.

you hire consultants so you can cut staff and quality, but the CEOs were already going to do that.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#78

Post by michaeldoron »

Every time an analyst gives the current state of AI-based tools as evidence supporting AI disruption being just a hype, I think of skeptics who dismissed the exponential growth of covid19 cases due to their initial low numbers.

Putting that aside, how is this article called an analysis and not an opinion piece? The only analysis done here is asking a labor economist what conditions would allow this claim to hold, and giving an alternative, already circulated theory that AI companies CEOs are creating a false hype. The author even uses everyday language like "Yeaaahhh. So, this is kind of Anthropic’s whole ~thing.~ ".

Is this really the level of analysis CNN has to offer on this topic?

They could have sketched the growth in foundation model capabilities vs. finite resources such as data, compute and hardware. They could have wrote about the current VC market and the need for companies to show results and not promises. They could have even wrote about the giant biotech industry, and its struggle with incorporating novel exciting drug discovery tools with slow moving FDA approvals. None of this was done here.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#80

Post by airstrike »

righthand wrote: post #34
golol wrote: post #16

> To be clear, Amodei didn’t cite any research or evidence for that 50% estimate. I truly belive these types of paper don't deserve to be valued so much.

Yes we live in a world where no “experts” are required to provide any evidence or truth, but media outlets will gladly publish every false word and idea. For the same reason these Ceos want to wipe their workforce for more money, not a functioning society.

The attention economy is ruining society.
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